MADISON — Highlighting their “hot dogs” the city of Madison Police Department celebrated National Hot Dog Day with a live K9 demonstration at Madison City Hall today.
In addition to partaking in hot dogs served up by the force, the public was able to see the department’s highly trained police dogs demonstrate detection and apprehension skills at the free community event.
“We just invited the community out to have a hot dog with us and then see what we consider our hot dogs, which is our K9 team,” said Community Resource Officer Shane Kyker. “It’s a fun event where we get to interact with the community in a less intimidating setting.”
Officers demonstrated how their dual-purpose dogs are trained in criminal apprehension, narcotics detection, officer protection, and search and rescue.
“They can also locate people that are missing out in the woods,” Kyker said. “It’s just another great way these dogs do things human beings aren’t able to do.”
The event introduced the public to some of the department’s four-legged officers, including Bear, a Labrador retriever with a rare and highly specialized skill.
“Bear is trained to alert on evidence like a cell phone, a thumb drive, or even a little micro SD card,” Detective Ted Thiele said. “Sometimes when we’re on searches, it can be hard to find small devices like that, but Bear is trained to sniff them out.”
Another crowd favorite was Brutus, a nearly four-year-old Belgian Malinois and German shepherd mix from Hungary.
“Brutus is trained in detecting methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, crack, and cocaine,” his handler said. “He’s also trained to track missing people or suspects on the run, and he can locate individuals in buildings and apprehend them if needed.”
Referred to as “bite work”, Brutus demonstrated his apprehension skills on Kyker.
Brutus received his initial four months of training through the Huntsville Police Department, but his training never really ends.
“I still train with him every single day,” his handler said. “He’s very good at what he does.”
The department has three working K9s with plans to expand the unit.
Though there was no hot dog eating contest, Kyker said he expects to add that next year and hopes to make the K9 event an annual celebration.
To learn more about upcoming events, residents can follow the Madison Police Department on social media.
“We’re throwing things together all the time,” Kyker said. “We just want people to see what we do and that we’re human, too.”
